The present invention relates to a method for preparing a vegetable oil emulsion by ultrasonication, and more specifically, to a method for preparing a vegetable oil emulsion that can improve emulsion conversion of an oil and significantly prevent layer-separation between the oil and deionized water.
Owing to unique ingredients omitting fragrances, various vegetable oils such as herbal oils have various efficacies such as stress relief, psychological sedation, skin soothing, odor removal, strengthening of the body's immune system, and physical (body) stabilization.
Meanwhile, these vegetable oils are utilized as massage or fragrant oils which are not stock (crude) oils extracted from plants but are dilutions of the stock oils in various ingredients.
In addition, these herbal oils may be used for cosmetics or diffusers that emit fragrances into the air. In order for herbal oils to be used for cosmetics or diffusers, the process involving mixing water such as deionized water with vegetable oils and converting the mixture into an emulsion is required.
However, it is extremely difficult to homogeneously mix vegetable oils with water due to their physical and chemical properties and, even if the vegetable oils are mixed with water, the oils and water may undergo layer-separation within a short time.
Meanwhile, the following Patent Document 1 discloses a method for preparing an aqueous emulsion by mixing retinispora oil extracted from retinispora (Chamaecyparis pisifera) with water and then subjecting the mixture to ultrasonication. However, when the ultrasonication of Patent Document 1 is used, the emulsification proportion of the retinispora oil is low, and when the method is applied to emulsification of various herbal oils, there are problems that almost no aqueous emulsification occurs in most herbal oils or the herbal oils are immediately layer-separated.
Accordingly, there is an urgent need for development of a novel method for preparing a vegetable oil emulsion that can convert herbal oils through ultrasonication into aqueous emulsions where the herbal oils are homogenously mixed with water, prevent layer-separation between the oils and water for a long time and can be widely applied for general use to a variety of herbal oils.